Walmart Pay hits checkout lanes nationwide

Walmart has announced that it has completed its rollout of Walmart Pay, its own take on mobile payments, to all of its stores nationwide. Availability covers more than 4,600 stores across the country, according to Walmart.

Originally launched in early December of 2015, Walmart Pay has seen a gradual rollout to stores over the past several months. As opposed to other mobile payment platforms like Android Pay and Samsung Pay, Walmart Pay uses QR codes that you scan from the Walmart app at checkout. Your associated payment card will then be charged and you'll receive an e-receipt in the app.

Honestly, their system is not well implemented and very badly trained in their stores along with them not being given info about why something didn't go through.
I went about a week and a half ago to use the gift cards I had built up using the savings catcher and gift card that I was randomly given at one point to use along with my debit card to get something that was $50 and a couple small things. I set everything up, linked my walmart account. Went in to the store, scanned the QR code, scanned my items, hit ready to pay, and then it just said "Processing". Which sat there for about 3-4 minutes before it just said it could not be completed. But all of my gift cards were wiped out in my account. No one had any idea how to fix it. No info about if it was just trying to use a Gift Card (which the app even said should use first). Just a Cashier that was very lost. They called a manager, who had no idea how to do anything or even suspend the transaction. I was only concerned about losing my gift cards since I figure I could just buy the stuff at another time. They had to call 3 people, none of which had any info or idea, even implied that they may have to look at security footage before doing anything. Finally the Cashier suspended the transaction so they could do it manually, and waited for someone else to show up. This was after 25 min of waiting. Finally after waiting another 5 minutes, the gift cards were credited back to my online account. I just said I didn't want to bother anymore. Cancelled the expensive thing, bought the drink and simple stuff and just felt that i wouldn't do it again. It was a major embarrassment because it seemed like I was the one holding up the line, when it was the system that did it. The Cashier themselves were super nice and helpful, but every other person above them had attitude and no idea how to resolve the issues.

No, no cave.... thankfully I have the alternatives that include Target, Costco, Publix, Kroger, Kohls, etc. (all of which are superior retailers and companies in every sense and category). The greedy ass Walton family and their "cult like" stockholders will never see a penny of my money...

Because it works with MST,making it a 100 times more useful than android pay or apple pay.Google should have purchased the technology so that it could be across all of android.Hard to believe they missed the implications of it and didn't jump on it.

How is the market going to dictate that when the market won't expand unless you allow all forms of payment to be used? How about force everyone to accept "all" payments and then this way the market will decide what they want to use. I don't know about you but using a more secure form of payment like tokenization is something I would choose every time. Qr code payment is slow and relies on the company to maintain their system. With nfc or mst it's using the same credit card system, just more secure.

It's frustrating. I don't lose service in Target or Best Buy or at the grocery store. I do somewhat in the back of Lowe's and Home Depot but those stores all offer WiFi so I can still use their apps (see that is thinking). I won't use banking or payment apps over public WiFi but the registers are at the front of the store where I always have service. Except Wally World. Even buy the doors my signal just dies. I swear it uses some weird building material in its stores.

I think it's just ridiculous that they're refusing to accept Apple Pay or Android pay. As consumers we should have the option to use whatever payment method we choose. This should be a mandated standard as I hate using the chip card it's so much faster to use my phone to pay or my Watch.

They don't want you to use Apple or Android Pay because then they can't track your purchases; you're just an anonymous token / credit card number with those payment systems.
The big benefit of this app to Walmart is they can track purchases of those who use it, just like grocery chains do with their loyalty card users.

If you want to use Walmart Pay, you'll need to have them store your credit cards, but for the actual payment, no credit card information is shared. If you have a walmart.com account with cards stored, they already have your info stored. It's like calling your utility company and authorizing them to debit your payment from whatever bank account or credit card, which you put on file with them. So you're only as secure as the server where they store your account information. So it's as safe as they can make it, You'll have to judge how secure you feel on that issue.

I have to admit that I was 100% against CurrentC/Walmart Pay and all that garbage. Scanning QR codes seemed so "Galaxy Nexus" to me. Then I actually tried it a while ago. I was shocked at how fast it was. Also, that it actually worked!

I've tried ApplePay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay, and Capital One Wallet and it's been hit or miss with all of them depending on the merchant. I spent the last few weeks using Walmart pay and it's worked flawlessly every single time. My only suggestion is that they have a dedicated app for it instead of bundling it with the Walmart app. That way I can just unlock my phone and use a gesture to get to the Walmart Pay camera screen.

Samsung pay works at Walmart and surprises the hell out of their cashiers.Unless Walmart offers a further discount or something along those lines for using it,no interest in a closed,proprietary system from Wallyworld.

Actually, I found it a lot FASTER than using Samsung Pay or my chip and PIN card. I just open the app and point the camera at the code. It literally takes 2 seconds before it says "connected" and another 5 second for it to email me the receipt. I can use ANY debit/credit card associated with my Walmart account, it keeps track of all my receipts, and even gives me the difference back if another store has a lower advertised price.

Another weird benefit that I've found is that if I happen to buy a Blu-Ray disc from a Walmart store, it will "automagically" appear in my online Vudu library.

Honestly, I bought a few that didn't say anything about InstaWatch on them and they still appeared in my library. I figured this out after my wife bought a fitness DVD and it showed up in my library. It kinda worked out because she could watch her fitness DVD on the iPad at her job.

Walmart does offer a further discount with their Savings Catcher program. You can still participate in this if you pay with a different method, but then you have to manually scan the receipt. When you use Walmart Pay, the receipt is automatically submitted to Savings Catcher. I think Walmart Pay is faster than other methods, because you can use it at any time during the process. If you are using another method of payment or even Samsung Pay, then you have to wait for the cashier to total your order and perform the action at the end.

This is great. I've had an iPhone with Apple Pay, where you just double tap the home button and hold the phone on the terminal. I now have an S7 Edge where you just slide the card up with your finger and do the same NFC transaction. Way to complicated, when instead I can download a Walmart app, create an account, unsubscribe from emails because you always get signed up for a newsletter when you open an account, add payment information, unlock the phone, open the app, navigate to pay, scan a QR code and then confirm you're ready to pay. I'm sick of those simple one click and a finger print transactions, and look forward to a nightmare of click, poke, camera scan, click and apologize to the person behind you in line for taking so stinking long in the first place.

Its actually pretty fast, once you set it up. All you really do is open the walmart app go to walmart pay then depending on the phone can either use a 4-digit pin code or your fingerprint to authenticate you then the camera launches & you scan the qr code which scanned it in only a second, then your part is done. The only time it took a little bit is the cashier trying to figure out what to do, which I understand since this is a new program.

Sounds like a lot of extra work compared to NFC. And, completely useless in any other store other than Walmart, so entering your payment information there means you still need to enter it into Android Pay or Samsung Pay anyway.

Its a great way to introduce mobile payments to those who have Androids that don't get to have Samsung pay or Android pay. I loved my Note 3 which was a great phone but there was no mobile payment solution for it. Although I would prefer one app to do it all, Samsung and Google would rather you get the latest and greatest phone to use these convenience features.

Sorry but your wrong about not having a NFC payment options on the Note 3. I had a Galaxy S3 which came out long before the Note 3 and I used Google Wallet on it for years. That was long before a Android pay came out. I 99% sure that any Android phone running Android version 4.4 Kit-Kat or above and has a NFC chip in the phone can and will run Android Pay. The Note 3 was updated to version 5.1.1 Lollipop. You could have used Google Wallet and then switched over to Android Pay when it was released. As fore using Walmart's mobile payments, I will not be trying it because of the weak security of QR code based payment systems. I believe Jerry Hildenbrand in an article last year has stated the facts on that issue. I trust us judgement on things like that.

It is not fast, I can use Samsung pay without even unlocking my phone first. That is ideal when in line at Check Out. Not opening an app then clicking pay. Everything just needs to be integrated into Samsung Pay or Android Pay in one place.

It's not even about the seconds. It could be marginally faster than Android Pay (it's not, but let's say it is). One system (Android Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay) has well audited security, huge bank buy in, and works not universally, but all over the place thanks to widespread deployment of NFC capable card terminals.

The other is accepted by Walmart.

Fast forward a bit. Now I need a Target app, and set up payment methods there. And a supermarket app. And a gas station app. And a department store app or four or five. It's the exact reason the CurrentC (EXACT same concept of a QR code) consortium that Walmart and several others were part of before it folded... well... it's the exact reason they failed.

Yeah, but Android Pay doesn't work with my banks. Samsung Pay doesn't work with my banks. Apple Pay only works with one bank, which I use. Walmart Pay works with any bank and that beats all the other pay systems hands down in convenience. It's too bad other companies can't figure out what Walmart has figured out in making a very usable and convenient product. I would like it better however if there was a cash back option.

Here's the benefit you're not seeing... If you shop at Walmart much and use their Savings Catcher program you already have to open their app after you checkout and scan the receipt to get your receipt data in. Sometimes this can be an extra pain since the receipt printer may be low on ink and the QR code doesn't scan so you have to type it by hand. With Walmart Pay you scan at the start of the transaction and it's all done for you. Not to mention no more holding on to receipts for returns and VUDU integration for movies. Honestly, the ease of using this is better than checking out at Amazon, and you can't use Apple/Samsung Pay there. I've used it multiple times and unlike NFC terminals this one just works.

Yes you can use Samsung pay at Walmart and no they are not very happy about it I am sure as soon as they can they will block the hell out of it but yes you can use Samsung pay at Walmart I use it about once a week sometimes twice a week

Can i ask what is the point of this?? What benefits are there? I know at one point walmart was working on self mobile checkout, where you scan your items as you put them in the cart. then just process your payment and walk out of the store... but take out your phone, find an app , scan a code to pay? When you can simply use a credit card in about 4 seconds. ??

I thought the same thing until I used it. It's a lot faster than any NFC solution that I've used and it does a great job of keeping receipts in my account and giving me back the difference if another local store happens to have a lower price.

I used it a week ago at the scan and pay at my local store. The Walmart employee came over and asked me "what did you just do?" I had to explain their own payment system to him and how it worked.

So they actually were smart and brought it all together with the compare prices to other local stores system they have.. well i can see that being very handy. Maybe I will have to try it then. Thank you for the feedback on your experience.

No problem. They've actually had the Saving Catcher portion bundled in the Walmart app for a year or so. Anytime I go to Walmart and they give me a receipt, there is a QR code at the bottom. If I scan the code with the app, it will scan the competitors prices for the lowest price and give me back the difference. I've actually gotten a few hundred dollars this past year just from that.

Now if Walmart can figure out some licensing agreement to upgrade digital copies of movies to UHD versions for a small fee, they can actually own the digital distribution market.

They have a new 'instant redeem' feature for digital copies. If the movie is eligible, you scan the receipt into Savings Catcher and the movie is auto added to your account.
The other benefit to Walmart Pay is the savings catcher payback being auto used rather than having an e-coupon or transferring to Bluebird.

1. Save time - Checkout is faster because you don't have to swipe your card and wait for the receipt. You can scan the payment terminal the moment you walk up to the register and you don't have to wait until the end of the process. When the cashier is done scanning your items, you just grab the bags and go. The receipt gets automatically sent to your device.
2. Save money - Any checkout with Walmart Pay automatically gets submitted to their Savings Catcher program that gives you cash back when a lower price is found at a different retailer.

I've actually used it quite a bit and it's a lot faster than I thought it would be initially. They present the QR code on the POS terminal when the cashier scans the first item. It disappears after a bit, but there's a "Walmart Pay" button you can press to show it again. Anyway, once you see the code, at any time, you fire up the app and press the Walmart Pay button on your phone. It's pretty big and hard to miss. I can then authenticate with my fingerprint and the camera is activated. Then you put in POS terminal in view of the camera and you're connected. You can then put your phone away. Nothing else is needed. I do agree with you that some sort of separate app with just that or maybe some sort of shortcut like Google did the Driving app for Maps would probably make it a bit quicker.

One cannot just swipe their credit or debit card if it has a chip on it. Walmart has enabled the EMV chip reader on all of the POS terminals. If you have a chip, you're required to use it. That authorization wait time is much longer at the moment.

Longer than the procedure outlined above? Regardless, I don't need Walmart keeping track of all my purchases in addition to my bank or credit card company. Wireless payments were cool for like a minute...